Elsewhere In This Issue…

To join the MSSF and receive this newsletter, send a $25check, payable to MSSF ($20 for seniors 65 and over andfull time students), to MSSF Membership, 2750 MarketSt. Suite 103, San Francisco, CA 94114-1987,Attn:David Bartolotta. Please include contact informa-tion: home and/or work phone numbers and email ad-dress. New and renewal memberships will be currentthrough December of 2001. To change your mailing ad-dress, please notify David. MSSF members may also joinor renew membership in the North American Mycologi-cal Association at a reduced rate by including with theirMSSF check a separate check for $32 payable to NAMA.Send it to David at the same address. For further infor-mation email David at david@bartolotta.com or call at(415) 621-3166.

Mycena News is the newsletter of theMycological Society of San Francisco and ispublished monthly from September throughMay. Send or email newsletter submissions bythe 15th of each month to Beth Sampson, 1227Masonic St. apt# 8, San Francisco, CA 94117.phone: (415) 863-7677, email: y49@slip.net.

Editor: Beth SampsonPrinting/Mailing: Mother Lode Printing,

Jackson, CA

Membership and Subscription Information

Society Officers:President: Terri Beauséjour (510) 278-5998Vice Pres: David Rust (510) 430-9353Secretary: Jeanne Campbell (415) 457-7662Treasurer: Sherry Carvajol (415) 695-0466

Select Committees:Forays: Jim Miller (510) 530-5038Book Sales: Norm Andresen (510) 278-8998Membership: David Bartolotta (415) 621-3166

Mycena NewsMycological Society of San Francisco December 2000, vol 50:12

The Presidential Preamble ..................... 2Cultivation Corner ................................ 6Culinary Corner .................................... 5Mz. Myco-Manners ................................ 9Calendar ............................................. 10

Don’t Forget TheFair!!!!

31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair

Saturday and Sunday December 9-10

Page 2 Mycena News,December, 2000

Presidential Preamble

By Terri Beausejour

Greetings, friends! This is of course, a big month for the MSSF.The 31st annual fungus fair will be held on December 9th and10th at the hall of flowers. Forays and the Id process will takeplace on Friday, December 8th. It is really exciting to partici-pate in the setup process – beginning in the mid-afternoon, inwill come boxes and boxes of specimens collected from all overthe Bay area – often from as far north as Mendocino and as farSouth as Santa Cruz. These are then sorted by foray location,and the Id process begins. Our Id process committee is lead byour Scientific Advisor, Dr. Dennis Desjardin, and includes sev-eral of our most taxonomically knowledgeable and adept mem-bers along with several of Dr. Desjardin’s graduate students.What commences is an intense process of identifying, labelingand recording around 300 species in just a few hours. Onceidentified, the specimens are moved to the display tables forartistic arrangement by some of our more aesthetically astutevolunteers.

Meanwhile, the rest of the hall will be abuzz with the setup ofeducational displays, signage, book, t-shirt and mushroom kitsales, habitat and mushrooms in the garden displays, and, ofcourse, Chez Chanterelle. It is quite an exciting and exhaust-ing day, yet many hands do make light(er) work, and of courseall of the volunteers are treated to a warm and hearty hot mealand libations that evening. If you haven’t yet participated infair setup day, I highly recommend it – a very rewarding andfun experience. Of course, there are volunteer opportunitieson both fair days as well, and volunteers are given free entranceto the fair for two hours or more of contributed time.

In other news, I will give a brief summary of the Novembercouncil meeting. David Bartolotta reported that our currentmembership count is 676. This includes honorary member-ships and institutional members. He also reported that the2000 roster is almost complete – just one minor technical is-sue to resolve and it will be ready to go to print.

We also had a brief discussion about the MSSF library. Ac-cording to a knowlegeable source, the MSSF possesses one ofthe best mycological libraries in the country! We would there-fore like to make some improvements so that the library ismore accessible and so that a complete catalog is available toall members. If you have ideas about improving the library,please let me know, or talk with our lirbarian, Beryl Durnell.And look for some announcements and positive improvementsduring the coming months.

The treasurer reported that our insurance and tax documentsare currently in good order. Also, several donations have been

received to the Harry D. Thiers scholarship fund. If you wouldlike to make a tax-deductible donation to this fund, please specifyit by name on your check.

Our foray leader, Jim Miller, reported that the Mendocino forayis expected to be fantastic this year, with excellent collecting con-ditions and a wonderful menu plan, catered by Maria Moon,who will also cater Chez Chanterelle at this year’s fair. Jim isalso arranging several beginner’s identification forays around thebay area in the weeks following the fair. Keep an eye on thecalendar section for details, and if you can lead a walk or knowof a good spot for a walk, please let him know.

Our fungus fair co-chair, David Rust, reported that all is goingwell with the fair preparations, although we do not have a t-shirt chairperson this year, so we won’t have a new t-shirt at thefair this year. However, we have ordered several more of the50th anniversary t-shirts, which sold out last year, and still havelots of nice t-and-sweatshirts in the inventory. If you or some-one you know would be willing to help us out as t-shirt chair,please let me know. It is an important part of our promotionalregime, and it also helps us cover our budget.

On another note, the new fair posters are ready for distribution.By the time you get this newsletter, it will be less than 2 weeksbefore the fair, so please pick up some posters and distributethem to your favorite store: grocery, nursery, outdoor store, etc.You can call or email any council member to find out who hasposters available in your area of the Bay.

Bill Freedman has kindly donated a beautifully framed posterlisting all the different professions one can follow with a degreein mycology. It lists everything from professor to brewmaster.We plan to display this poster at the fair and at our general meet-ings.

Please note that there is no council nor general meeting in themonth of December due to the preparations and staffing for thefungus fair.

Given the current wonderful myco-conditions due to the earlyrain, I do hope your holidays abound with full baskets and goodcheer!

Terri

Membership Dues are Due!!! Membership Dues are Due!!! Membership Dues are Due!!! Membership Dues are Due!!! Membership Dues are Due!!! If you have not yet renewed your membership Please do so now, before the end of the year. If you don’t renew now, this will be your last issue of Mycena News. Yikes! Please send your check of $25 payable to MSSF to: MSSF Membership, 2750 Market St. Suite 103, San Francisco, CA 94114-1987 Attn: David Bartolotta

Thank You

Mycena News, December 2000 Page 3

Report on the Priest Lake IdahoForay Sept.22-24, 2000

By Larry Stickney

100 folks attended the Priest Lake, Idaho, Foray, dedicated toKit Scates-Barnhart. We found Dorothy Brown still carryingon at 94, and not just a figurehead. She may not hear or see verywell, but she still in charge! She founded the Spokane MushroomClub with Dr. Alexander Smith’s persuasion 35 years ago. Healways felt this was the best area to find the most different fungiin all of the U.S. No one familiar with it would disagree.

Kit Scates at the ID table was going strong as ever. All appreciateher continuing contributions to mycological gatherings all alongthe Pacific Coast, from Canada to Mexico.

Owner Mrs. Hill was as gracious and busy as ever. She broughtout for me to see a fine photograph of Arnold Reed kneeling bya large white Russula and holding a larger Boletus edulis. Arnoldand Mrs. Reed visited here every fall for many years before andafter the Spokane Club’s annual forays. We much miss themboth now.

Coleman Leuthy took over as foray mycologist for Nicolin Graywho fell ill and could not appear. Of course with many NorthwestKey Council members present, and Mike Beug there with 60 ofhis students from Evergreen College, Cole was responsibleessentially only for directive decisions. That isn’t to say he wasn’tawfully busy just the same. Doris Henderson served as Recorderfor 238 different species. All the specimins kept well on theoutdoor display tables in the freezing nighttime temperatures.

Ben Woo presented a little study of a few Russulas with his usualsly wit. His thoughts about the Shrimp Mushroom with all ofits many color variations were comforting to all of us who oftenwonder if we really have found it or some thing else among thelarge population of colorful Russulas which number upwards of1200.

And a Canadian polypore expert from Okanagan, formerlyCurator of Ottawa’s National Mycological Herbarium, JimGinns, presented a well-rounded, well-photographed slide showof familiar fungi Saturday night.

The conditions were not perfect, it being a week earlier than thepreferred dates at the end of the month. (Hill’s Resort had asellout for that date already.) Rain had fallen Thursday makingthings look wetter than they really had been. Coleman took meon his favorite hike, north of the Resort along the beach onFriday morning. We found more than a dozen Matsutake buttonsand a few Boletus edulis on a very brisk cold day. It was one ofthose days when every emergence into the warming sunlight by

the lake was very welcome, indeed sought after. In the afternoonI went south of the Resort along the beach and unearthed morethan two dozen Matsutake as mushrumps, all tightly closed smallbuttons slightly pushing up the moss or duff. More showed upthere Saturday afternoon for folks I sent there to look forthemselves when they had seen none elsewhere that day.

Our personal Saturday foray north about 20 miles to BeaverCreek at the end of the Lake wasn’t wildly successful, but it wasa much warmer sunny day for walking through the woods oncethe sun rose higher in the clear blue sky. No sign of the wispymorning mists remained after nine o’clock. Only ducks rippledthe mirrored lake surface which inverted snowy Lookout Peak.Chanterelles were scarce, and more often small white ones ratherthan golden ones. Whites show first even in Mendocino, don’tthey. Best find of the day was a long strip of deep orange Sulphurshelves on a snag which won first prize as a table decorationafter surrounding it with other colorful fungi and mosses. Smallprizes, mostly jars of Huckleberry Jam, were presented to anumber of registrants for smallest, largest, rarest, most colorfulmushroom. No one found a deadly species so that prize wentbegging. Isn’t Priest Lake just wonderful ?

Hill’s is so plush these days it is hard to believe what it once wasback in the 60’s. All the big old drafty two story lakefront cabinsare gone and of course replaced. But Hill’s kitchen remainsremarkable, and the bar bigger. Morning huckleberry pancakesand syrup, scrambles eggs with bacon or sausage, and excellentcoffee bring back old almost forgotten memories even in themuch changed and enlarged dining room, now with a new bigdeck outside the plate glass windows. Less lake is visible from itthese days because the Firs and Cedars have grown wider andtaller; leased Forest Service land comes with unchanging,inflexible cutting restrictions, alas. The Saturday night Banquetfor over 100 diners was impeccable; tender Prime Rib, whetherrare or rined, bacon-laced green beans, real smashed potatoes,and a Huckleberry sauce over vanilla ice cream. My meal waspreceded at the bar with fresh “Oyster Shooters”, Puget Soundoysters from the resident saltwater tank, shucked into a cordialglass and laced with traditional sauces. I’d love to be there formore next weekend, when fruiting conditions will be muchbetter. What a marvelous rotting world we share!

Page 4 Mycena News,December, 2000

The 31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair December 9-10,The 31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair December 9-10,The 31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair December 9-10,The 31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair December 9-10,The 31st Annual MSSF Fungus Fair December 9-10,20002000200020002000

The 31st Annual MSSF Mushroom Fair will be held at The County Fair Building /Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, SaturdayDecember 9, from 10am-5pm, and Sunday, December 10, from 11am-5pm. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for students withID and children under 12. There will be thousands of mushrooms on display, cooking demonstrations, vendors and lectures anddiscussions on psychedelics, poisonings, medicinal uses, and more.

The following is a schedule of events:

• Taylor Lockwood will be presenting his slide show, Treasures from the Kingdom of Fungi, in the early afternoon on both Saturdayand Sunday.

• Paul Stamets will be speaking on Amanitas and Psilocybes on Saturday at 3:00, and on Bioremediation using oyster mushroommycelia on Sunday at 3:30.

• Matteo Garbelotta will be speaking on Sudden Oak Death at 11:30 on Saturday.

• Janet and Richard Doell will be giving their Lichen presentation at 2:00 on Saturday.

• Mo Mei Chen will be speaking on Medicinal Mushrooms Sunday at noon.

• Mike Boom will be giving a Beginners Talk on Mushrooms at 2:15 on Sunday.

• Sat 2:00PM Patrick Hamilton, Mushroom chef extraordinaire AKA MycoChef will be cooking up culinary delights with wildmushrooms. Liberal samples will be given out throughout the demonstration.

• Sun 2:30PM Chef Sunita Dutt of Chinook restaurant in San Rafael will give a demo on cooking with wild mushrooms. Sunitais a longtime mushroom aficionado, a wonderful chef and a delightful teacher.

Booth demonstrations will last approximately 1 hour.

In order to ensure that our Fair is a success, VOLUNTEERS ARE STILL NEEDED! You can volunteer for a wide range ofactivities e.g. mushroom hunting, helping to set up & break down exhibits, T-shirt sales, admissions, fielding questions at mush-room tables, and many other fun & fulfilling chores.

Volunteering at least 3 hours over the weekend will earn you free admission to the Fair. Plus, we’ll even feed you! To volunteer,please contact Lorrie Gallagher(lorriegallagher@hotmail.com, 510-250-2665) or Ron Pastorino (Ronpast@aol.com, 415-924-4818). For those individuals interested in gathering mushrooms for the displays, there are several pre-fair forays going out. Checkthe listings below.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8: PRE-FUNGUS FAIR FORAYS AROUND THE BAY.

San Mateo County, Memorial/Sam McDonald Park foray. Fred Stevens: (650) 994-1374 or Mike Wood: (510) 357-7696. Meetat the Memorial Park Ranger station.Woodside, San Mateo County, Huddart Park foray. Wade Leschyn: wade@moggies.org or( 650) 591-6616.Salt Point, Mendocino County foray. Anna Moore: (510) 710-2020. Meet at Stump Beach Parking lot 10AM.San Carlos, San Mateo County. Crystal Springs Watershed foray. Meet at Pulgas Temple on Cañada Road. Bill Freedman: (650)344-7774.Willits, Mendocino County, Rock-n-Ridge Ranch foray. Near Willits, CA. Foray will be held at a property owned by MSSFmember Jan Donaghy. The property contains mixed woods — mostly Tanoak and Madrone. Contact Jan Donaghy: (510) 339-1569 or janman955@aol.com or Mark Lockaby at (510) 412-9964, or pozer900ss@aol.com.*NEW* Marin County foray. The foray will take place at Roy’s Redwood’s, part of Marin County Open Space. This is a uniqueopportunity to foray in an area that is normally off limits. The number of participants for this foray will be limited, so call BobMackler at (510) 779-6756 to sign up and get more information.

For more details about The Fair or any of the Pre-Fair forays, call the Mycological Society of San Francisco’s hotline at: 415-759-0495 or visit www.mssf.org.

Mycena News, December 2000 Page 5

Culinary Cornerby Bill Hellums

The Culinary Group’s pre-Election Pig-Out was just that, awhole suckling pig. And unlike the national election that fol-lowed, there was no doubt as to who the winners were. Thelist of donors for the appetizers is so long we won’t try to listeveryone by name, but they provided a platform that any po-litical party would drool for. And where the national partieshad their “get out the vote” effort, we had Mark Lockaby andhis consultant Jan Donaghy bringing in the fresh boletes forthe sauce.

The number one slot on the ticket went to the roast sucklingpig, provided by Tom Sasaki, with its running mates: citrusporcini sauce, created by Bill Hellums; a fabulous cream ofchanterelle with truffled mashed potatoes, from David Eichorn;a crisp green salad and braised mustard greens from LuciaPaulazzo; roasted winter vegetables from Alvaro Carvajal;roasted pumpkin from Fred Kron; and spicy pumpkin cakewith cream cheese frosting from Mary Ann Swazo. Round-ing out the slate were punch from Leon Ilnicki and coffee fromBennie Cottone. But first there were appetizers: “Korozott”Hungarian spread from Paul, baked portobelli with cheese fromDave Bell, celery-root remoulade from Anna Uznanska, roastporcini with rosemary from David Campbell, Maui pineapplesfrom Bob Ericsson, jalapeno-cheese-morel-tofu spread fromDulcie, veggie and goose-liver pate with mini tomatoes andolives from Wade Leschyn and Debby Payne, pate from TerryBrandburg and Sue Scarlett, pate from Dick and Marg Rhodes,gorgonzola and sour cream dip from Larry Stickney, and mo-rel dip from Phil Brown.

All in all, except for the pig — which was completely devouredby the opposition, a good time and feed were had by all.

Unfortunately, we had a much larger turnout than was ex-pected, which necessitated portion control on some of theitems. This seems to be a recurring problem, and is the causefor major concern. We plan for more people than make reser-vations, but it is difficult to anticipate a 30% increase in atten-dance, and not cost effective to prepare that much additionalfood on the chance that many will come. So please, please,please, be considerate enough to the cooks to getyour reservation in on time.

The cooks like to eat too.

To make reservations for Culinary Group dinners, call BennieCottone at: (415) 731-8798 or Bil Hellums at:(415) 255-4950.

Mushrooms

Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly

Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding,

Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us!

We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot’s in the door. —Sylvia Plath

Page 6 Mycena News,December, 2000

Cultivation Corner by Ken Litchfield

So we’ve already started to receive cultivation questions. Here’sthe first.

Slugs and Snails Question

I already have my own mushroom garden that I started withkits. It’s a lot easier than all that lab stuff. I’ve gotten some Agari-cus, oysters, and Stropharias to fruit and they seem to have taken.My problem is the slugs and snails eating them before I can har-vest them. They chew holes all over them and leave disgustingslime everywhere. I’ve just about given up on having any decentharvest of mushrooms or anything else in my garden. I’ve triedDeadline and it works good for a while and then they’re back.Plus I don’t like what it may do to pets or other animals or mefor that matter. That stupid beer idea that everybody talks aboutdoesn’t work at all. I’ll go out at night and the snails will beeverywhere chomping down on everything in the garden butthey won’t even wash it down with a sip of beer. Just the idea ofpicking them creeps me out. What can I do? Help!

Answer

This is probably the single most asked question in gardening. Itmay seem hopeless but things aren’t nearly as bad as they at firstmay seem. The solution to your problem is partly observational,partly behavioral, partly attitudinal, partly philosophical, and allstrategic.

Some f(r)iends that aren’t quite of my own gardening philoso-phy enjoy coming home from a hard day of work and usingtheir puttering time in the garden to unwind. They’ll line up ina row any observable mollusk they find and claw hammer thefaces of any fellow employees or bosses that graced their paththat day. They tie a crab fork to a dowel to keep from having tobend over when they skewer people they don’t like. It helps towear a ski mask and goggles when they 9 iron their cohorts intothe neighbor’s garden. Black and Decker makes a whole line ofproducts that would appear to have been specifically designedfor interpersonal relations and gastropod control. Mmmm, I canimagine feeling better already. Now down to business.

It sounds like you are presently overrun with a huge slug andsnail population that is devouring everything. You may have todo a day or two of serious garden work to lay the proper ground-work but then only some very minor maintenance is required tokeep everything running smoothly. Keep in mind that the veryconditions that are conductive to mushroom production are alsowhat the slimers like the best. And mushrooms are one of theirfavorite foods. First go through the whole garden and clean outall the debris, weeds, extraneous boards, empty pots, plastic sheets,etc. that make good hiding places. Prune up branches that arelow to the ground or up against a wall to give you access to theirresting places. Any seasonal spots such as a vegetable plot thathas been harvested and is spent for the season should be dug upor tilled well to expose snail and slug eggs to the drying air andpredatory birds and insects. The same for any open areas. Eggsare clear gelatinous globes for slugs with calcareous shells forsnails, 2-5 mm in diameter in clutches of 5 to 70 or more.

Maybe it’s time to do a little relandscaping of your garden areaand dig up anything that isn’t too big and rearrange it to make themost of sunlight for the plants and viewing for you. Spread a finelytextured, uniform, light colored mulch such as sawdust or grassclippings so that the bodies of roving snails and slugs stand out incontrast.

n the process of doing all this work you will encounter a multi-tude of snails and probably lots of slugs as well. Have handy a 5gallon bucket of soapy water, a tablespoon of Ivory liquid in 1/2gallon of water for the slugs you find. Picking them up with kitchentongs works great for the blennophobic. The soapy water inter-feres with their slime system and they won’t be able to crawl out.Have handy another 5 gallon bucket with a damp towel coveringthe bottom so when you toss in the snails they won’t break theirshells. A wet towel to drape over the top keeps them from escap-ing. Tongs aren’t necessary for snails because their shells act asslime-free handles.

In selected locations around your revamped garden place several 1foot wide boards 2-3 feet long, a liftable, collectable length. Theyshould be slanted so that one long side is against the ground andthe other is raised about 2-3" high with rocks or bricks. Your mol-luscan friends will now gather themselves for you under theirgastropodal corrals and you can wrangle them up in your bucketbrigade during their daytime sleep. Try to complete all the workin one day so that the molluscan environment has been totallyrevamped before nightfall. If necessary invite over some friendsfor a gardening party and then go help them do theirs or offer toshare some territory or produce with them if they don’t have gar-dening space.

Besides the boards for their corrals you need some grazing pas-tures and salt licks. As you have observed, beer is only minorlyeffective on snails, but it is one of the best treatments for slugs. Itacts as both bait and demiser. It isn’t the alcohol in the beer thatkills them. It is apparently the yeast smell and flavor that attractsthem like cows to a salt lick and the liquid then drowns them. Thebeer can be stale so the alcohol is evaporated and they will stillcome to it. If the bowl has completely dried up and then getsmoist again that is enough to reattract them. They are generallyattracted most to Budwiser and Michelob and least to Pabst BlueRibbon. But if you just mix 1 cup water with a teaspoon of sugarand a 1/4 teaspoon yeast that will attract them. Set the bowl so thelip is about level with the soil and keep the liquid level deep enoughso they can drown. For the snails purchase one or two sixpacks ofbedding marigolds and pot them one per pot in six inch pots thatcan be sunk into the ground in strategic locations throughout thegarden. Put them into the ground while it is still light, brush theleaves gently with your fingers, and be ready to go out starting atdusk to wrangle up your herd as it goes to marigold pasture. Within15 to 30 minutes after dark you will find that your marigolds areacting as snail magnets drawing toward them the elongated bod-ies of any snails within a 4-5 foot radius. On the first night youmay find twenty to thirty or more magnetized snails gravitatingtoward each marigold as if you are watching multiple mini mari-gold horror movies. You have to go out every 15 minutes or so tocollect all the magnetized snails around each marigold before theyactually reach their prey or the plants will be mowed down rightbefore your eyes. Each of these wrangled snails from your snaildrive goes into your snail bucket. Around bedtime lift the mari-gold pots from the ground and put them in a mollusk-free area.Repeat the process for several nights in a row and you will see agreat drop off in your slimer population. Then you will only needto repeat the process periodically on a convenient night. If youhaven’t had rain for a while and it’s time to water your garden wait

continued on page 7

Mycena News, December 2000 Page 7

until the day of a convenient evening and water about 2-3 hoursbefore dark. Then put out your marigold pasture. Right afterdark go out with your bucket and all the moisture will bring outwhatever stragglers are still hanging around the garden.

Let’s say you have some special plants or newly sprouted seed-lings or young plants just set out from pots or some mushroomsjust pushing up from the substrate that you want to keep rovingslimers from munching on. There are several reliable repellentsthat can be spread in a ring about 3-4" in radius around thetarget to be fenced in. Wood ashes, diatomaceous earth, crushednut shells like walnut, hazelnut, filbert or pecan, egg shells,crushed charcoal, crushed sea shells or abalone shells, coffeegrounds, powdered ginger, and sawdust can all be used as a des-iccant/irritant singly or mixed according to what you may haveavailable. You can also spray a mist of soapy water on the grittybarrier that will guarantee no crossings. The soap spray also workson the sides of pots, planter boxes, etc. The gritty barrier andsoapy mist must be replaced after rain or watering.

Here is a recipe for a slimer bait that works pretty well withboth snails and slugs. Mix 1 ounce of corn bran or wheat bran,3/4 ounce powdered milk, 1 ounce corn starch, 1 ounce brew-ers yeast, and 1 pint beer. To this add 8 ounces of oatmeal or 8ounces of dried Quack Grass , Agropyron repens, roots and leavesand run it through a meat grinder to make pellets. Air dry themand put them in bowls in strategic locations throughout thegarden. Quack Grass has been shown to be a natural herbal toxinto snails and slugs. The oatmeal pellets will only be a bait.

Ivory liquid is a natural product and if used in a mild concen-tration will repel all slime producers and still break down easilyin the soil. Never use salt which some people recommend as it istoxic to soil microorganisms and disturbs the soil ecosystem.Some people swear by copper stripping that give slimers an elec-trical shock when they try to cross it. But the band has to be 2-3 inches wide, continuous, and without debris laying on it andit is expensive. As it oxidizes it makes byproducts which are toxicto the soil and it ups the level of copper in the local ecosystembeyond the usual trace amounts. Deadline and other commer-cial baits contain metaldehyde which dehydrates snails and slugstill they die. It is also toxic to animals. Philosophically, it isn’tnecessary to waste money on corporate poisons when plenty ofnontoxic controls are freely available. And it’s really better toshare your garden with your fellow organisms instead of givingup your money to their corporate destruction.

If you keep out the toxic products and stay organic you willhave a better, healthier garden ecosystem that will both be con-ductive to plants and fungi and the predators that will feed onsnails and slugs. Without the pesticides the diversity of organ-isms will increase including beetles, centipedes, millipedes, sala-manders, garter snakes, mice, shrews, moles, birds, skunks, rac-coons, and possums. You may not want some of these largerslimer predators as they sometimes damage the garden whenrooting around for prey. Some people keep bantam chickensjust to eat their snails but ducks are better slimer eaters andmuch more polite garden denizens. If there are poultry rules foryour neighborhood you might be able to get around them if theduck is treated as a pet. Be sure to keep them protected fromcats, dogs, and raccoons.

In case you haven’t noticed we’ve put a lot of snails into thatsnail bucket. If you now lift the towel you will probably find

over $100 crawling around. Yes, you have a bucket of that Frenchdelicacy escargot. The real thing. Helix aspersa aspersa, Petite Gris,little greys, the brown garden snails. They were introduced intoCalifornia by French or Italian immigrants in the 1850s. In Eu-rope where heliciculture is an art, snails are ranched carefully butin California, and particularly San Francisco, conditions are so con-ductive that you just have to go out and pick them up, especially ifyou have your board corrals. There are other snails besides thePetite Gris. The Gros Gris is Helix aspersa maxima, 20g to thePetite’s 10g. Helix pomatia, the Burgundy or Apple snail, is a littlesmaller than the Petite Gris but generally considered to be tastieras is the Helix leucorum, the Turkish snail. For sheer mass there’sthe giant African snail, Achatina fulica, one of several giant Afri-can land snails that can reach 2 lbs and 15 inches long. Any snailsyou find in your garden will work, the larger the easier. And if youreally want to be bold try using some of the larger slugs you collectas prehulled escargot. You should never eat any of the gastropodsraw as they are known to carry various parasites that can do weirdthings when they get a human host into their life cycle. Besides,among slugs’ favorite food, especially the banana slug, Ariolimaxcolumbianus, is dog poop and you never know what that dog mayhave been eating. Once you round up a few dozen head you areready to start the escargot preparation procedure, with purgingfirst.

Put the live snails into a colander and rinse them several times toclean them of dirt and debris. Then put them into one of thoseplastic storage containers with a snap on lid punched with air holes.The container size should be a gallon of volume per 2 dozen snails.Put in a shallow dish of water. Rinse the snails and clean the con-tainer every day, toss the dead snails regularly, and change the wa-ter frequently. The snails will be purged clean after 4 days. Theyare now ready for blanching. Or you can fatten them up for twomore weeks with three tablespoons of cornmeal per dozen snailsevery other day and cleaning and rinsing can be every other day.After 2 weeks they are fasted for two days and are ready for blanch-ing.

To blanch your snails rinse 4 cups of live snails in a colander undercool running water to remove debris and pour them into 1 1/2quarts of boiling water in a 3-4 quart pan. Bring back to boil for 2-3 minutes but not longer to keep them from becoming tough.Watch out that the foam from the slime doesn’t overflow the pot.Drain the snails and rinse them well in cold water. With a woodpick pierce each snail and pull it out of its shell. Some people sayto cut off the coiled section that last comes out of the shell of anysnail. It’s called the gall or the tortillon or the hepatopancreas. Butmost gourmets say this is the tastiest part of the Petite Gris so keepit.

Now mix 1 1/2 quarts cool water with 1/3 cup vinegar in a bowland add the deshelled snails stirring until the liquid is cloudy. Drainand repeat this rinsing 2-3 times until the liquid is clear. The vin-egar rinse removes any remaining slime from the snails. They cannow be padded dry and put into plastic bags for freezing or theycan be cooked fresh.

There are some herbal uses to some of this slime you collect in theboiling pots or first vinegar rinse. The slime is about 2% muco-proteins and the rest water which would be an excellent emollientfor skin. A photographer friend took a bunch of simulated deathphotos of his girlfriend with about 50 snails crawling over her nudebody. She said afterward that the slime tightened up her skin quitewell as it dried. But she didn’t like the several hundred little redspots scattered over her body the next day where all those radullaswere tasting her. I don’t know who got the negatives when they

Cultivation, continued from page 6

continued on page 9

Page 8 Mycena News,December, 2000

Wild About Mushrooms Co. has recently released the newFall-Winter Events Schedule. This season’s schedule is chock-full of forays, classes, dinner events, weekend camps, and more,ranging from Pt. Reyes to Mendocino. For a free EventsSchedule, contact W.A.M. at 707-887-1888, write to PO Box1088, Forestville, CA 95436, or e-mail to: waminfo@webtv.net.You may also view the W.A.M. schedule on the Web. Go to:www.wildmushrooms.qpg.com and when there, take the linknear the page bottom that says “For further informationregarding...”. Two more clicks will take you to the W.A.M.schedule. Wild About Mushrooms is led by CharmoonRichardson of SOMA, with substantial assistance from David& Jeanne Campbell of the MSSF. We hope you can join us foran exciting mushroom event!

SOMA Camp 2001 Registration Open

Attention all myconauts! SOMA, otherwise known asthe SOnoma county Mycological Association, is pleased toannounce that Camp registration is now open. The Campwill be held on Martin Luther King weekend, January 13 -15, 2001 (Sat/Sun/Mon), at Wellsprings Renewal Center inPhilo, Mendocino Co., CA. There will be expert-ledmushroom forays to numerous locations throughout theweekend. There will also be classes and workshops onmushroom dyeing & paper making, identification, cooking,medicine making, microscope work, and cultivation, alongwith slide shows in the evenings, and delicious mushroomdining throughout the weekend. Come enjoy and explorespecimen tables, the Mykoweb website, and lots of mush-room excitement! Wellsprings is a comfortably rustic camp with cabins andlodge rooms, located in the scenic Anderson Valley. HendyWoods State Park (awesome redwoods), and many wineriesare nearby. Fee: Split fee of $100/$150 includes lodging,meals, instruction, classes, etc. Some workshops may have asmall materials fee. The event is a benefit for the SOMAScholarship program. The two fee options reflect thedifference in the accommodation comfort levels.

To register, please send a deposit check made toSOMA for one half of the full fee to: SOMA Camp, 490Liberty Rd., Petaluma, CA 94952. You will receive aconfirmation. For further information, or questions aboutthe accommodation choices, please contact CharmoonRichardson, SOMA Camp coordinator, at 707-887-1888,or e-mail to:<somacamp@webtv.net>. Further informationis available on the Web at the SOMA website: http://www.metro.net/biologist

We hope to see you at the Camp!

Newcomers and Beginners!

Our Foray Chair, Jim Miller, has organized a series of foraysespecially for beginners, check these out:

San Francisco; Lands End. Meet at parking lot, northwestcorner of Cliff House area; (end of Geary Street). Bringcollecting basket. Foray is on, rain or shine. December23rd at 9 A.M. Foray leader is Monique Carment who canbe reached at (415) 474-7220.

East Bay, Alameda County, Joaquin Miller Park. Meet atSequoia Arena off of Skyline Drive at 10 A.M. Rain can-cels. Foray leader is Jim Miller at (510) 530-5038. The dateis December 30th.

San Mateo County; Huddart Park,.meet at main parkinglot with Wade Lechsyn on January 6th at 10 A.M. You cancall him at (650) 591-6616.

Marin County; Bear Valley, Point Reyes National Sea-shore. Meet at Visitor Center parking lot. Rain cancels.Call Bob Mackler for additional information, (510) 799-6756; January 20th from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.

By Debbie Viess

Mycena News, December 2000 Page 9

Mz. Myco-Manners is an exciting new feature of Mycena News! HaveMz. Myco-Manners address your pressing myco-etiquette questions too!Get ready for that next big foray with the courteous yet competetiveadvise only Mz. Myco-Manners can give. She shuns publicity andtherefore cannot let her real identity be known, but you can write toMz. Myco-Manners c/o your friendly newsletter editor. Your questionswill be dutifully passed along. Please send your questions to:

Mz. Myco-Manners,c/o Beth Sampson1227 Masonic St. apt#8San Francisco, CA 94117

Or email questions to Mz. Myco-Manners: y49@slip.net

Mz. Myco-MannersMz. Myco-MannersMz. Myco-MannersMz. Myco-MannersMz. Myco-Manners

There Are No Stupid Questions....

DEAR MZ. MYCO-MANNERS: This is my question, myquery, deary: If I took some folks to someone else’s secretpatches, places that I’d been sworn to keep hidden from thesinfully covetous eyes and pathetically empty baskets of theseothers, would that be wrong, if foremost amongst these otherswere you?

Sincerely,Disoriented in Occidental

GENTLE READER: There are no stupid questions, onlystupid people. Mz. Myco-Manners is flattered that you wouldtake her to a secret spot in the forest for no other reason thanshowing her fungi. I don’t believe in “secret patches” in theforest. Everyone who thinks he/she has one is only foolinghim/herself. Every time Mz. Myco-Manners has had a “patch”she has met with dismay that someone else also considered ithis/her patch. Divulging information to others in hopes ofappearing intelligent is not a really big crime (not like roastingthe neighbor’s baby on and open rack in a shallow pan, fat sideup at 350 degrees for 20 minutes a pound or until tender).Passing on this “secret” information may annoy your source, soyou must also swear your admirers to secrecy. I’m not trying toabsolve you from being a creep to your source; I just don’tthink it is too serious.

Mz. Myco-Manners

DEAR MZ. MYCO-MANNERS: My son Timmy and I havebeen hunting mushrooms together since he was a little tyke.He’s not so little anymore...at 15, he has a moustache, weighsalmost 200 #s and stands over 6 feet tall. My problem, Mz.Myco-Manners, is that Timmy no longer wants to hunt withme. He’s discovered that it’s much more efficient to mug othermushroomers as they return to their cars with full baskets. Hehas a really big mushroom knife. Let me assure you that he didNOT learn this behavior at home! Although we do appreciate

all the brimming baskets that he contributes to our table, Ifind it terribly embarrassing socially, since he looks just likeme (facial hair runs in our family). This has caused us acertain of social isolation within the mushroom commu-nity. Can you help us?

A concerned Mother

GENTLE BREEDER: You possess the good, the bad, andthe ugly, don’t you? Good that you have had the joy ofgiving birth; bad that he’s a thug; ugly that you both sharemoustaches. What a mixed blessing that he provides foryour table, though by despicable ways. This is indeed atragedy (however, not as bad a tragedy as watching theBaxter twins, conjoined at the top of their heads since birth,perfecting the co-ordination of their pogo-sticks that firstweek after Christmas). First of all, he MUST use that bigknife only to harvest and clean great amounts of fungi thatHE has found himself. Secondly, call a military academyand send him away so your social contacts will return. It ismy understanding that young scamps, like your son, benefitgreatly by military discipline. As well, they strike a hand-some pose in those uniforms. Please follow this advice, andlet me know how things turn out, because I do care (yeah,right).

Mz. Myco-Manners

broke up. The boiled slime as an emollient also makes a goodgargle for sore throat. If you think about it, the slime would prob-ably make an excellent emetic...especially when you think aboutit.

The cooked snail is low in calories and rich in protein, vitaminsA and C, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and iodine.

Traditionally there is one more preliminary step that can be per-formed before freezing or cooking in the finished recipe. Simmerthe snails for 1 1/2 hours in a Court-Bouillon of 1/2 liter of whitewine per 1 liter of water to which is added onion, shallots, garlic,celery, carrot, thyme, dill, bay leaf, parsley, salt, pepper, and anyother herbs and spices of personal preference. Now the drainedsnails can be added to other recipes or frozen for later use and therest of the Court-Bouillon can be used as stock for other dishes or

eaten as a soup.

Escargot goes particularly well with mushrooms.

You will find lots of recipes for various escargot dishes on theinternet, particularly at: www.jdsnails.com/templates/index.cfm?pagecontents=recipes

Keep those questions rolling in.

Ken Litchfield199 Museum WaySan Francisco, CA 94114415-863-7618klitchfield@randall.mus.ca.us

Cultivation, continued from page 7

Mycological Society of San FranciscoP.O. Box 882163San Francisco, CA 94188-2163

December, 2000 vol 50:12

Calendar

First Class MailU.S. Postage

PAIDJackson, CAPermit No 29

No MSSF General Meeting for the Month of December.

Monday December 4: MSSF Annual December dinner. Reservations:Sherry Carvajal (415) 695-0466. Food prep: Bennie Cottone (415) 731-8798 or Bill Hellums (415) 255-4950. See page 5 for details.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 8 PRE-FAIR FORAYS:San Mateo County, Memorial/Sam McDonald Park foray. FredStevens: (650) 994-1374 or Mike Wood: (510) 357-7696. Meet at theMemorial Park Ranger station.Woodside, San Mateo County, Huddart Park foray. Wade Leschyn:wade@moggies.org or( 650) 591-6616.Salt Point, Mendocino County foray. Anna Moore: (510) 710-2020.Meet at Stump Beach Parking lot 10AM.San Carlos, San Mateo County. Crystal Springs Watershed foray. Meetat Pulgas Temple on Cañada Road. Bill Freedman: (650) 344-7774.Willits, Mendocino County, Rock-n-Ridge Ranch foray. Near Willits,CA. Foray will be held at a property owned by MSSF member JanDonaghy. The property contains mixed woods — mostly Tanoak andMadrone. Contact Jan Donaghy: (510) 339-1569 orjanman955@aol.com or Mark Lockaby at (510) 412-9964, orpozer900ss@aol.com.*NEW* Marin County foray. The foray will take place at Roy’sRedwood’s, part of Marin County Open Space. This is a unique oppor-tunity to foray in an area that is normally off limits. The number ofparticipants for this foray will be limited, so call Bob Mackler at (510)779-6756 to sign up and get more information.

Friday-Sunday December 8-10: Systematics and Ecology ofCalifornia Mushrooms. Albion Field Station. For more informationplease call Staci Markos or Betsy Ringrose at (510) 643-7008 or e-mail smarkos@socrates.berkeley.edu

Saturday and Sunday, Decenber 9-10: 31st Annual MSSF FungusFair. Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park. See page 4 of this issue fordetails.

December 10: Application Deadline MSSF ScholarshipThe Mycological Society of San Francisco offers scholarships to fulltime graduate students majoring in mycology, who are attendingcolleges anuniversities in northern California. Send inquiries/materialsto Robert Mackler, 157 Mesa Ct., Hercules, CA 94547.

Saturday Jan. 13th Mills Canyon, San Mateo County; Specialforay on at 10 A.M. with Fred Stevens at (650) 994-1374. Off ofhighway 280, south from Trousdale exit to Skyline Blvd., to HillsdaleDrive, to Adeline in Burlingame. Adeline abuts on the South end ofMills Canyon. If you are confused give Fred a call.

Sunday January 21, 2001 SOMA - Sonoma County MycologicalAssociation Wild Mushroom Fair. Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa,CA. Free admission.More details and photos can be found at: http://www.metro.net/biologist